Installations

The Smart Energy Council has announced plans for a second rally to warn against the current Solar Homes scheme’s damaging effect on Victoria’s solar industry. This time, the protest will target Premier Daniel Andrews’ office.

The Australian utility-scale solar developer has reached the final development milestone on a solar and battery project near West Wyalong in the Riverina region.

U.K. solar developer Lightsource BP will host a community information event in Mannum, to outline its proposal to fund, build and operate a 100 MW solar project.

With around 16 battery-based virtual-power-plant projects either in progress or planned across six states, Australia is demonstrating the potential of distributed energy resources to the world. An Australian Clean Energy Summit panel last week caught up on progress and potholes on the road to energy’s new two-way street.

On Friday, ReNu Energy signed an agreement for the sale of its solar assets, including Shopping Centres Australasia arrays, to commercial-rooftop-solar startup CleanPeak Energy.

Chinese module maker and project developer Canadian Solar has acquired another 25% share in the 189 MWp Suntop Solar Farm from Photon Energy and increased its stake to 76%. The balance of shares is held by Sydney-based Polpo Investment.

With more than 50 GW of new wind and solar projects in the development pipeline, the Australian Energy Market Commission is looking to give developers more detailed and up-to-date information about new generation projects. The new draft rule may help businesses make better investment decisions on where to locate new generators and assess project viability.

The stunning low tariff is a third world record in five weeks. Solar prices continue to tumble and with a Saudi auction concluding tomorrow, the Iberian benchmark could be short-lived. The official result of the Portuguese tender will be announced August 10.

Phillip Island Nature Parks, which manages the fairy penguin’s habitat on the island, has built a new visitor centre powered by solar energy. The 200 kW system installed by Gipplsand Solar is featuring Trina modules coupled with Fronius inverters.

The program will test the potential of distributed energy resources, such as rooftop solar systems, battery storage and controllable load devices, aggregated into virtual power plants (VPPs), to provide scalable energy and network services traditionally performed by large-scale, conventional electricity generators. With registration open, the Australian Energy Market Operator wants VPPs to register to accelerate the shared learning on how to safely and efficiently integrate, operate and regulate these emerging technologies into the National Electricity Market.